Rented the new R rated Batman animated film Batman: The Killing Joke. Based on a 1988 Batman v. Joker comic book, this adaptation adds 30 minutes of preamble to the story to build up the character of Batgirl before what happens to her happens to her in. I’m not familiar with the comic beyond the basic premise and this adaptation has been hated by most of the fans of the comic.
Oddly, what those fans liked was what I disliked and what they hated is what I like a bit. The opening 30 minutes is the stuff the fans hate because it makes Batgirl out to be a kind of terrible superhero and makes her relationship with Batman kind of girly (she’s literally waiting by the phone for him to call her). I agree with all that but I also thought the villain they were chasing was kind of interesting. A misogynistic Lothario who was really turned on by Batgirl and kept objectifying her… and Batman keeps telling Batgirl to stay out of it which pisses her off. I like all that.
But where the movie falls apart is the actual story told from the comics – and I think the reason I was bored by it was because what was original and innovative and uniquely dark in 1988 is kind of old hat now. Batman and Joker are two sides of the same coin – both had tragedies that turned one dark and broody and the other into a lunatic. Joker wants to prove that it takes just one bad day to turn any normal person insane. None of this is original – heck, the past four Batman movies are dark and brooding and cover some of these bases.
This isn’t the fault of the comic – this is the fault of the adaptation hewing too closely to that comic (I guess). Maybe this wasn’t good material to cover. Maybe they didn’t cover the material correctly. Maybe Kevin Conroy as Batman was a big blank slate of brooding boring when he maybe should have played it more conflicted. I don’t know.
All i do know is that I was bored through the majority of the second half of the film and kind of into the first thirty minutes or so. Those first 30 aren’t perfect but I get what they were trying to do as far as providing more backstory for Baraba Gordon/Batgirl. Kind of baffling some of the choices made if they were trying to make her a strong character… but it was at least more than what they apparently gave her in the comic.
Score: 68